Ladies... Please!

I find a dearth of female singer-songwriters or even performers for that matter, among the Indian Independent rock scene. I am in the midst of a Nirvana tribute tour with my band, where I have a selection of guest singers who pop in and do a selection of Nirvana songs.

I find a dearth of female singer-songwriters or even performers for that matter, among the Indian Independent rock scene. I am in the midst of a Nirvana tribute tour with my band, where I have a selection of guest singers who pop in and do a selection of Nirvana songs.

One of the things that I wanted was to have a female singer open the show with her own interpretation of two Nirvana songs, selected by me. It has been a tough search.

Now Mumbai is not much of a problem, because I think we have our fair share (however small) of female singers. But I did a gig last week in Delhi and have gigs coming up in Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad as well. And let me tell you, finding a worthy female vocalist has proven to be quite a task.

I wonder what it is that deters the female sex from pursuing a career in music. And by music, I mean rock ‘n’ roll and all the genres and sub-genres within. It’s one thing to get a training in Indian classical and then go on and either be an exponent in the classical field or join the Hindi film playback brigade.

But to decide to pursue a career track within the international popular music mould is quite a formidable task. So, in time, I hope to see many more female artistes out there, who are taking their musical identity and their performance attitude and putting it out there for the world to take notice of… if I may say so.